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David Lerner (poet)
David Lerner (November 23, 1951 - July 1, 1997?) was a renegade American poet and journalist. Life Born in New York City, Lerner came from a family of Russian-Jewish renegades, and grew up as a so-called "red-diaper baby". Lerner published numerous articles as a journalist, including material on the Russian singer and poet Vladimir Vysotsky. Lerner pursued a bohemian life, and around 1986 became involved in the notorious Cafe Babar in San Francisco, a group dubbed as the Babarians. Lerner and Bruce Isaacson co-founded Zeitgeist Press and have been referred to as 'the Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot of the underground.' Lerner's common-law wife, Maura O'Connor also published poetry. Lerner was associated with the Lyman Family a.k.a. Fort Hill Construction, who have preserved his literary memory. Lerner died of a heroin overdose in 1997 and Zeitgeist published 'The Last Five Miles to Grace' posthumously. Writing Bucky Sinister of the San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote: "Lerner was a broken-down saint if there ever was one. He was an eloquent screamer, a soft-spoken rageoholic, a madman with a great manuscript. His poetry will always be a reminder of a time when poetry in the Mission was spontaneous, magical, and more than a little bit dangerous." A celebrated Lerner poem, 'Mein Kampf', is a seminal statement of underground poetics in response to the weight of the mainstream. In it he says: I'd rather sell arms to the Martians than wait sullenly for a letter from a diseased clown with a three-piece mind telling me that I've won a bullet-proof pair of rose-colored glasses for my poem "Autumn in the Spring" Lerner's work has not yet been fully collected in an available edition. A considerable amount of his work is still unpublished, including poems, prose, and a large volume of letters. Publications Poetry * I Want a New Gun: Poems, 1987-1988. Oakland, CA: Zeitgeist Press, 1988. * Why Rimbaud Went to Africa. Oakland, CA: Zeitgeist Press, 1989. * The American Book of the Dead. Grace Street Press, 1990."David Lerner", New American Underground Poetry (edited by David Lerner, Julia Vinograd, & Alan Allen). Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2005, 115. Google Books, Web, Nov. 9, 2014. * Pray Like the Hunted. Oakland, CA: Zeitgeist Press / Brooklyn, NY: Juggernaut Editions, 1992. * The Last Five Miles to Grace: New and selected poems. Las Vegas, NV: Zeitgeist Press, 2005. *''Die anmutige Kurve eines Marschflugkörpers = The graceful arc of a missile'' (bilingual English & German; translated by Ron Winkler). Leipzig : Poetenladen, 2008.Wyldcat. Web, Nov. 9, 2014. Edited * The Babarians of San Francisco: Poets from hell (edited by David Lerner, Julia Vinograd, & Alan Allen). Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2005. **also published as New American Underground Poetry. Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2005. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:David Lerner, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 9, 2014. Audio / video * Pirate Lerner (CD). Zeitgeist Press, 2005.Books by David Lerner, Zeitgeist Press. Web, Nov. 9, 2014. See also *List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems *"Mein Kampf" *"Why Rimbaud went to Afrika" *"Slam Dancing to the Blues" ;About *David Lerner at the Poetry Foundation Category:1951 births Category:1997 deaths Category:American poets Category:Deaths by heroin overdose in California Category:Outlaw poets Category:20th-century poets Category:American Jews Category:American journalists Category:English-language poets Category:Jewish American writers Category:Jewish poets Category:Poets Category:People from New York City